IS IT
HUMAN TOUCH OR ANIMAL TOUCH ?
"He cannot die, we have a pact. When we go, we go together.” He says, cuddling his pet.
OUR ANIMAL FRIENDS TOUCH THE DEPTHS OF OUR EMOTIONS AND BELIEFS, AND IN DOING SO, THEY WILL CHANGE THE WAY WE LIVE, FULFILLING LIVES …
PLEASE READ THE EXCITING NEWS ARTICLE WRITTEN BY PRIYA M. MENON FOR THE TIMES OF INDIA CHENNAI EDITION DATED, Feb 16, 2010, AND ALSO READ THE FOOT NOTE.
4,000 KM FOR HIS PET BONXIE SHILLONG TO CHENNAI,
MAN DRIVES TO GET HEALTHCARE FOR DOG
Chennai: The critical care unit at the Madras Veterinary College was abuzz with activity on Friday morning. By the time Sanjay Sharma walked in with his pet dog Bonxie, a team of doctors and attendants was ready to take charge. As flashbulbs popped and cameras rolled, veterinarians fitted Bonxie with a holter ECG, which would monitor and record his heart function for the next 24 hours. All along, Sharma remained by his dog’s side, crooning to him.
“He will be alright, he knows I want him around”, says Sharma, who drove 4,000 km from Shillong to Chennai to get his pet the best healthcare available in the country. “He is an inseparable part of my life,” says Sharma, who got the Boxer as a gift from a friend in Alabama. Sharma, who has his own security-cum-detective firm back home, even has a blog for his pet, http://bonxieboxer.blogspot.com
A lively 16-month-old, Bonxie first displayed symptoms of his illness in January. “We had a severe winter and Bonxie wasn’t keeping well. He was on antibiotics and when he first fainted, I though it was due to weakness,” says Sharma. However, when Bonxie began having fainting spells in quick succession, sometimes two to three times in an hour, Sharma rushed him to the local vet, who said further investigations would be required. “My brother-in-law is a vet who studied in Madras Veterinary College and he put me onto doctors here. They have the best veterinary care facilities in the country,” says Sharma, who contacted professor of clinical medicine Dr. AP.Nambi about 10 days ago.
Sharma decided to come down to Chennai with Bonxie since vets suspected there was something wrong with the dog’s heart since it has an irregular heartbeat. Air travel was ruled out since he was afraid the cargo hold may not be well-oxygenated. “I didn’t travel by train as Bonxie hates closed doors and the motion may upset him,” he says. So he hopped into his Mahindra Xylo along with Deepak, his Man Friday, and drove down to Chennai.
“Bonxie loves drives, he is in the front seat with me whenever I drive,” says Sharma, who carried a tent along with him in case he didn’t find a pet- friendly hotel along the say. “Luckily I met only friendly, co-operative people,” he says. He hit a rough patch only in the very beginning of his journey, since it was a bandh day in Assam.
Dr.Nambi and his team are optimistic about the dog’s recovery. “We will know the exact cause of his illness after we get the results,” says Dr.Nambi. “So we have asked them to be in the city till Tuesday.”
And Sharma is confident that Bonxie will recover. “He cannot die, we have a pact. When we go, we go together.” He says, cuddling his pet.
MY COMMENTS AS A VET:
BONXIE is a cute little boxer diagnosed suffering from SYNCOPE. It is pronounced as SIN-KO-PEA. Partial or complete loss of consciousness with interruption of awareness of oneself and ones surroundings; in nonmedical quarters it is refered as fainting.
Syncope is due to a temporary reduction in blood flow and therefore a shortage of oxygen to the brain. This leads to a sudden, transient loss of consciousness associated with loss of postural tone (collapse). Syncope is a clinical sign, not a specific diagnosis or disease.
Most Frequent Associated Conditions in Dogs with Syncope are Cardiac Diseases and Abnormalities which weakens the heart to pump out adequate blood especially to brain.
Therapy is aimed at managing underlying abnormalities, as well as avoiding precipitating factors such as exertion or environmental stressors, when possible. This may include instituting or adjusting medications for heart failure, correcting anemia, or treating respiratory or metabolic diseases. When an arrhythmia appears to be the cause of syncope, appropriate anti arrhythmic drug therapy or pacing is indicated.
Ambulatory ECG (Holter) monitoring has been useful for identifying or excluding cardiac arrhythmias and this was done for BONXIE and ruled out.
Now BONXIE is undergoing treatment for cardiac arrhythmia and advised to avoid exertion or environmental stress.
The incidence of syncope is more in certain breed of dogs like Boxer, Miniature Pinscher, Standard Schnauzer ,Miniature Schnauzer, Maltese - % of Total Dogs in breed respectively.
REF : SMALL ANIMAL CARDIALOGY 2002 (WalthamUSA.com and Ohio State University)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment